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Preclinical data demonstrated that combining an anti-programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor with a cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) inhibitor provided enhanced antitumor activity with no significant toxicities, suggesting this combination may be a potential therapeutic option. The multicohort, phase 1 KEYNOTE-155 study evaluated the safety and antitumor activity of the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab plus the CDK9 inhibitor dinaciclib in patients with relapsed or refractory (rr) chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and multiple myeloma (MM). Patients enrolled were ≥18 years of age with a confirmed diagnosis of CLL, DLBCL, or MM. The study included 2 phases: a dose-evaluation phase to determine dose-limiting toxicities and a signal-detection phase. Patients received pembrolizumab 200 mg every 3 weeks plus dinaciclib 7 mg/m2 on day 1 and 10 mg/m2 on day 8 of cycle 1 and 14 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 of cycles 2 and later. Primary endpoint was safety, and a key secondary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR). Seventy-two patients were enrolled and received ≥1 dose of study treatment (CLL, n = 17; DLBCL, n = 38; MM, n = 17). Pembrolizumab plus dinaciclib was generally well tolerated and produced no unexpected toxicities. The ORRs were 29.4% (5/17, rrCLL), 21.1% (8/38, rrDLBCL), and 0% (0/17, rrMM), respectively. At data cutoff, all 72 patients had discontinued treatment, 38 (52.8%) because of progressive disease. These findings demonstrate activity with combination pembrolizumab plus dinaciclib and suggest that a careful and comprehensive approach to explore anti-PD-1 and CDK9 inhibitor combinations is warranted. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02684617., (© 2022 by The American Society of Hematology. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), permitting only noncommercial, nonderivative use with attribution. All other rights reserved.)

Summary: We developed the MicrobiomeExplorer R package to facilitate the analysis and visualization of microbial communities. The MicrobiomeExplorer R package allows a user to perform typical microbiome analytic workflows and visualize their results, either through the command line or an interactive Shiny application included with the package. In addition to applying common analytical workflows, the application enables automated analysis report generation., Availability and Implementation: Available at https://github.com/zoecastillo/microbiomeExplorer., Supplementary Information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Molecular profiling of the most aggressive brain tumor glioblastoma (GBM) on the basis of gene expression, DNA methylation, and genomic variations advances both cancer research and clinical diagnosis. The enhancer architectures and regulatory circuitries governing tumor-intrinsic transcriptional diversity and subtype identity are still elusive. Here, by mapping H3K27ac deposition, we analyze the active regulatory landscapes across 95 GBM biopsies, 12 normal brain tissues, and 38 cell line counterparts. Analyses of differentially regulated enhancers and super-enhancers uncovered previously unrecognized layers of intertumor heterogeneity. Integrative analysis of variant enhancer loci and transcriptome identified topographies of transcriptional enhancers and core regulatory circuitries in four molecular subtypes of primary tumors: AC1-mesenchymal, AC1-classical, AC2-proneural, and AC3-proneural. Moreover, this study reveals core oncogenic dependency on super-enhancer-driven transcriptional factors, long noncoding RNAs, and druggable targets in GBM. Through profiling of transcriptional enhancers, we provide clinically relevant insights into molecular classification, pathogenesis, and therapeutic intervention of GBM., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).)

Osteosarcoma is one of the most frequent common primary malignant tumors in childhood and adolescence. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to regulate the initiation and progression of tumors. However, the exact molecular mechanisms involving lncRNA in osteosarcomagenesis remain largely unknown. Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is a familial cancer syndrome caused by germline p53 mutation. We investigated the tumor suppressor function of lncRNA H19 in LFS-associated osteosarcoma. Analyzing H19-induced transcriptome alterations in LFS induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived osteoblasts, we unexpectedly discovered a large group of snoRNAs whose expression was significantly affected by H19. We identified SNORA7A among the H19-suppressed snoRNAs. SNORA7A restoration impairs H19-mediated osteogenesis and tumor suppression, indicating an oncogenic role of SNORA7A. TCGA analysis indicated that SNORA7A expression is associated with activation of oncogenic signaling and poor survival in cancer patients. Using an optimized streptavidin-binding RNA aptamer designed from H19 lncRNA, we revealed that H19-tethered protein complexes include proteins critical for DNA damage response and repair, confirming H19's tumor suppressor role. In summary, our findings demonstrate a critical role of H19-modulated SNORA7A expression in LFS-associated osteosarcomas., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Xu, Huang, Zhu, Gingold, Bazer, Chang, Wang, Lai, Lemischka, Zhao and Lee.)

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data are noisy and sparse. Here, we show that transfer learning across datasets remarkably improves data quality. By coupling a deep autoencoder with a Bayesian model, SAVER-X extracts transferable gene-gene relationships across data from different labs, varying conditions and divergent species, to denoise new target datasets.

Most of reported steroidal FXR antagonists are restricted due to low potency. We described the design and synthesis of novel nonsteroidal scaffold SIPI-7623 derivatives as FXR antagonists. The most potent compound A-11 (IC 50  = 7.8 ± 1.1 μM) showed better activity compared to SIPI-7623 (IC 50  = 40.8 ± 1.7 μM) and guggulsterone (IC 50  = 45.9 ± 1.1 μM). Docking of A-11 in FXR's ligand-binding domain was also studied.

Squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) are aggressive malignancies. Previous report demonstrated that master transcription factors (TFs) TP63 and SOX2 exhibited overlapping genomic occupancy in SCCs. However, functional consequence of their frequent co-localization at super-enhancers remains incompletely understood. Here, epigenomic profilings of different types of SCCs reveal that TP63 and SOX2 cooperatively and lineage-specifically regulate long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) CCAT1 expression, through activation of its super-enhancers and promoter. Silencing of CCAT1 substantially reduces cellular growth both in vitro and in vivo, phenotyping the effect of inhibiting either TP63 or SOX2. ChIRP analysis shows that CCAT1 forms a complex with TP63 and SOX2, which regulates EGFR expression by binding to the super-enhancers of EGFR, thereby activating both MEK/ERK1/2 and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways. These results together identify a SCC-specific DNA/RNA/protein complex which activates TP63/SOX2-CCAT1-EGFR cascade and promotes SCC tumorigenesis, advancing our understanding of transcription dysregulation in cancer biology mediated by master TFs and super-enhancers.

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) enables the quantification of each gene's expression distribution across cells, thus allowing the assessment of the dispersion, nonzero fraction, and other aspects of its distribution beyond the mean. These statistical characterizations of the gene expression distribution are critical for understanding expression variation and for selecting marker genes for population heterogeneity. However, scRNA-seq data are noisy, with each cell typically sequenced at low coverage, thus making it difficult to infer properties of the gene expression distribution from raw counts. Based on a reexamination of nine public datasets, we propose a simple technical noise model for scRNA-seq data with unique molecular identifiers (UMI). We develop deconvolution of single-cell expression distribution (DESCEND), a method that deconvolves the true cross-cell gene expression distribution from observed scRNA-seq counts, leading to improved estimates of properties of the distribution such as dispersion and nonzero fraction. DESCEND can adjust for cell-level covariates such as cell size, cell cycle, and batch effects. DESCEND's noise model and estimation accuracy are further evaluated through comparisons to RNA FISH data, through data splitting and simulations and through its effectiveness in removing known batch effects. We demonstrate how DESCEND can clarify and improve downstream analyses such as finding differentially expressed genes, identifying cell types, and selecting differentiation markers., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)

Competitive BET bromodomain inhibitors (BBIs) targeting BET proteins (BRD2, BRD3, BRD4, and BRDT) show promising preclinical activities against brain cancers. However, the BET protein-dependent glioblastoma (GBM)-promoting transcriptional network remains elusive. Here, with mechanistic exploration of a next-generation chemical degrader of BET proteins (dBET6), we reveal a profound and consistent impact of BET proteins on E2F1- dependent transcriptional program in both differentiated GBM cells and brain tumor-initiating cells. dBET6 treatment drastically reduces BET protein genomic occupancy, RNA-Pol2 activity, and permissive chromatin marks. Subsequently, dBET6 represses the proliferation, self-renewal, and tumorigenic ability of GBM cells. Moreover, dBET6-induced degradation of BET proteins exerts superior antiproliferation effects compared to conventional BBIs and overcomes both intrinsic and acquired resistance to BBIs in GBM cells. Our study reveals crucial functions of BET proteins and provides the rationale and therapeutic merits of targeted degradation of BET proteins in GBM., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement: J.E.B. is an employee, shareholder, and executive of Novartis Pharmaceuticals. J.E.B. is also a Scientific Founder of Tensha Therapeutics, C4 Therapeutics, Syros Pharmaceuticals, SHAPE Pharmaceuticals, and Acetylon Pharmaceuticals. D.L.B. is an employee of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. None of these relationships constitutes a conflict of interest for the present work. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.

An efficient method of ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with linear ion trap-Orbitrap (UHPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap) mass spectrometer was established to elucidate the in vivo metabolites of tanshinone Ⅰ and tanshinone ⅡA in rats. Urine and plasma samples were collected after oral gavage. After processing biological sample by solid phase extraction, Waters ACQUITY HPLC BEH C₁₈ column (2.1 mm×100 mm, 1.7 μm) was used with 0.1% formic acid (A) - acetonitrile (B) solution as the mobile phase for gradient elution. The plasma, urine and the blank samples were then analyzed by ESI-LTQ-Orbitrap equipped with an ESI ion source under positive ion mode. On the basis of the accurate mass measurements, multiple mass spectra and comparison of data with published literature, a total of 26 metabolites were tentatively identified and characterized in the rat samples. Among them, 7 metabolites were derived from tanshinone Ⅰ through metabolic pathways of glucuronide conjugation, hydroxylation, reduction reaction, demethylation reaction, methylation, sulfate conjugation and their composite reactions. Nineteen metabolites were derived from tanshinone ⅡA through metabolic pathways of hydroxylation, reduction reaction, methylation, sulfate conjugation, glucuronidation, glucosylation and their complicated reactions. The results showed that the metabolism of tanshinone Ⅰ and tanshinone ⅡA in rats could be comprehensively clarified by using UHPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometer, providing material basis for the further research in terms of pharmacodynamics, toxicology, and secondary development of Chinese medicine., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

Bostrycin, a red antibacterial agent produced by Nigrospora sp. no. 407, is considered for meat processing. To optimize production, the culture conditions of submerged fermentation (SmF) and solid-state fermentation (SSF) were investigated. The optimal SmF conditions were a medium containing 1.0% cane molasses and incubation at 30 °C and 150 rpm for 6 days. In SSF, other than bostrycin, less pigment was produced and the optimal ratio of bagasse to water was 1:2 for 10 days. The production and recovery rate of bostrycin by SmF were 120 mg/L and 40%, respectively. Bostrycin exhibited thermostable, pH-dependent color change and dose-dependent antibacterial activity against Clostridium botulinum . Bostrycin-modified meat turned strong red for at least 24 h and could not be removed by washing; bostrycin maintained its antibacterial activity with a bacteriostasis rate of 91% on Staphylcoccus aureus . This is an easy and inexpensive means of acquiring bostrycin from molasses and sugarcane., Competing Interests: Compliance with ethical standardsAll authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

In this work, a low cost Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) transceiver for wireless sensor network (WSN) applications, with a receiver (RX)-matching network-reusing power amplifier (PA) load inductor, is presented. In order to decrease the die area, only two inductors were used in this work. Besides the one used in the voltage control oscillator (VCO), the PA load inductor was reused as the RX impedance matching component in the front-end. Proper controls have been applied to achieve high transmitter (TX) input impedance when the transceiver is in the receiving mode, and vice versa. This allows the TRX-switch/matching network integration without significant performance degradation. The RX adopted a low-IF structure and integrated a single-ended low noise amplifier (LNA), a current bleeding mixer, a 4th complex filter and a delta-sigma continuous time (CT) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The TX employed a two-point PLL-based architecture with a non-linear PA. The RX achieved a sensitivity of -93 dBm and consumes 9.7 mW, while the TX achieved a 2.97% error vector magnitude (EVM) with 9.4 mW at 0 dBm output power. This design was fabricated in a 0.11 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology and the front-end circuit only occupies 0.24 mm². The measurement results verify the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed BLE transceiver for WSN applications.

Cancer-associated autoantibodies show promise as sensitive biomarkers for the early detection of cancer. To test the immunogenicity of chromogranin A (ChgA) as a B cell autoantigen and to assess the potential applications of ChgA autoantibodies as novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we developed a high-content peptide microarray using ChgA peptides. Autoantibody profiling was carried out using sera from 168 individuals with NSCLC and 97 healthy controls. We present evidence for the occurrence of autoantibodies to ChgA peptides in patient sera and identified five highly responsive peptides in the NSCLC group using significance analysis of microarray (SAM). Receiver operating characteristic analyses showed that ChgA autoantibodies are valuable in the predictive diagnosis of NSCLC, suggesting that serum autoantibodies to ChgA-derived peptides are promising novel markers of NSCLC. Moreover, the high-content peptide microarray antibody profiling reported in this work provides a powerful tool to visualize the overall B cell response to ChgA peptides and should enable the rapid development of in-depth research into ChgA.

Background: As a strong fermentator, Saccharomyces cerevisiae has the potential to be an excellent host for ethanol production by consolidated bioprocessing. For this purpose, it is necessary to transform cellulose genes into the yeast genome because it contains no cellulose genes. However, heterologous protein expression in S. cerevisiae often suffers from hyper-glycosylation and/or poor secretion. Thus, there is a need to genetically engineer the yeast to reduce its glycosylation strength and to increase its secretion ability., Results: Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene-knockout strains were screened for improved extracellular activity of a recombinant exocellulase (PCX) from the cellulose digesting fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium. Knockout mutants of 47 glycosylation-related genes and 10 protein-trafficking-related genes were transformed with a PCX expression construct and screened for extracellular cellulase activity. Twelve of the screened mutants were found to have a more than 2-fold increase in extracellular PCX activity in comparison with the wild type. The extracellular PCX activities in the glycosylation-related mnn10 and pmt5 null mutants were, respectively, 6 and 4 times higher than that of the wild type; and the extracellular PCX activities in 9 protein-trafficking-related mutants, especially in the chc1, clc1 and vps21 null mutants, were at least 1.5 times higher than the parental strains. Site-directed mutagenesis studies further revealed that the degree of N-glycosylation also plays an important role in heterologous cellulase activity in S. cerevisiae., Conclusions: Systematic screening of knockout mutants of glycosylation- and protein trafficking-associated genes in S. cerevisiae revealed that: (1) blocking Golgi-to-endosome transport may force S. cerevisiae to export cellulases; and (2) both over- and under-glycosylation may alter the enzyme activity of cellulases. This systematic gene-knockout screening approach may serve as a convenient means for increasing the extracellular activities of recombinant proteins expressed in S. cerevisiae.

This chapter introduces a simple, cost-effective TopDown one-step gene synthesis method, which is suitable for the sequence assembly of fairly long DNA. This method can be distinguished from conventional gene synthesis methods by two key features: (1) the melting temperature of the outer primers is designed to be ∼8°C lower than that of the assembly oligonucleotides, and (2) different annealing temperatures are utilized to selectively control the efficiencies of oligonucleotide assembly and full-length template amplification. This method eliminates the interference between polymerase chain reactions (PCR) assembly and amplification in one-step gene synthesis. Additionally, the TopDown gene synthesis has been combined with the LCGreen I DNA fluorescence dye in a real-time gene synthesis approach for investigating the stepwise efficiency and kinetics of PCR-based gene synthesis. The obtained real-time fluorescence signals are compared with gel electrophoresis results to optimize gene synthesis conditions.

This chapter presents TmPrime, a computer program to design oligonucleotide for both ligase chain reaction (LCR)- and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based de novo gene synthesis. The program divides a long input DNA sequence based on user-specified melting temperatures and assembly conditions, and dynamically optimizes the length of oligonucleotides to achieve homologous melting temperatures. The output reports the melting temperatures, oligonucleotide sequences, and potential formation of secondary structures in a PDF file, which will be sent to the user via e-mail. The program also provides functions on sequence pooling to separate long genes into smaller pieces for multipool assembly and codon optimization for expression based on the highest organism-specific codon frequency. This software has been successfully used in the design and synthesis of various genes with total length >20 kbp. This program is freely available at http://prime.ibn.a-star.edu.sg.

For research on genetic characters and evolutionary origin of the genome of baculoviruses, a comprehensive homology search and phylogenetic analysis of the complete genomes of Bombyx mori NPV and Bombyx mori were used. Three horizontally transferred genes (inhibitor of apoptosis, chitinase, and UDP-glucosyltransferase) were identified, and there was evidence that all of these genes were derived from the insect host. The results of analysis showed lots of differences between the features of horizontal transferred genes and the ones of whole genomic genes, such as nucleotide composition, codon usagebias and selection pressure. These results reconfirmed that the horizontally transferred genes are exogenous. The analysis of gene function suggested that horizontally transferred genes acquired from an ancestral host insect can increase the efficiency of baculoviruses transmission.